With its second release in a year (following «Mesmerize» in May), System of a Down has lost shock value. Not that the band’s blend of metal; world music; jagged, breakneck rhythms; and non sequitur lyrics don’t still connect, but it is nowhere near as dazzling as it was on its first two go-arounds. That said, there are still some great songs on «Hypnotize,» including the plaintive «Lonely Day,» SOAD’s most emotionally straightforward tune to date. The band can still dazzle with its odd blend of thrash riffs and catchy choruses («Tentative»), and «Vicinity of Obscenity» is one of the most twisted, perverse and silly songs it has written. But the band is nearing the oversaturation point: «Mezmerize» and «Hypnotize» might have made more impact if they were released at once instead of spaced apart.

The Armenian-American quartet from Los Angeles knows that listening to its albums is like being pummeled by heavy metal guitars while drowning in a sea of encyclopedia pages. Knowing that the attempt to digest two albums of political rants punctuated by punishing guitar solos and stop-start melodies may cause their fans’ heads to explode, the band divided its recent album in two.

Year-End accolades are in for SOAD:
TIME Magazine #3 in the Best of 2001
«In a year filled with screaming nu-metal acts, this band screams loudest and most eloquently. Front man Serj Tankian has a soaring voice, but as he demonstrates on stand-outs Chop Suey! and Forest, he knows how to modulate, sounding like an angry cantor one moment and a choir boy the next. Guitarist Daron Malakian backs it all up with a fierce wall of fuzz.»

This may be the most well done metal / hard rock / etc disc that has ever been recorded. I am so floored with its completeness, its power, its pain that I really don’t know what else to say other than all pre-release hype was understated. May this system never cease.